…For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

The Best Sites To Learn About The U.S. Financial Crisis

I obviously believe using resources found on the Internet can be a very useful tool for student learning. However, the financial crisis now occurring in the United States (and which affects the entire world), I believe, is an exception.

This may be because it’s too complicated for them to explain, or this week’s events have just happened to quickly for them to respond. If it’s the second reason, perhaps this week we’ll see some new resources out there.

So I’ve been looking for some resources that are accessible to me so I can develop an accessible classroom lesson for my English Language Learner students. And, even with that change, I haven’t been able to find much.

The New York Times has a series of interactive features on The Debt Trap. On the lower right of the screen you’ll see “Series Index.” When you click on that, links to all the different parts of the series show-up.

The N.Y. Times also has a nice infographic called A Year of Heavy Losses that shows that magnitude of money lost by lenders, though it doesn’t explain why.

Please let me know when you find other good sites for teachers or students to learn what in the world is going on with our economy these days.

I might have found a good explanation that might be accessible to Intermediate English Language Learners. However, I can’t figure out how I can make it legible to students. What’s Next: Innovations In Newspapers highlighted a one page comic strip developed by the Toronto Globe and Mail newspaper.

However, I can’t figure out how I can easily enlarge it so students can see the words clearly. Any suggestions out there?

All of the resources I have listed here so far do just that — try to explain why we’re in our financial crisis.

I’m adding a new web tool into that mix that’s a little different (and California-centric). It’s an online interactive from the Sacramento Bee that, with very little teacher guidance, English Language Learners can see how the downturn is affecting different regions in the Central Valley — including our own.

Our students don’t really need help in seeing how it’s affecting their lives since they experience added financial hardships everyday. However, this kind of graphic begins to provide them with a slightly bigger picture.

Here are some explanations of various aspects of the history and effects of the crisis that students might find helpful:

First, some programs on PRI’s program “Marketplace”:
* “Financial Crisis 101: CDOs explained” (3 Oct 08) — marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/10/03/cdo/ . That’s the transcript. The video calls itself “Uncorking CDOs,” and can be found at vimeo.com/1876936 .
* “Untangling Credit Default Swaps” (8 Oct 08) — vimeo.com/1915392
* Ron Settle’s third period econ class featured on “Econ class is now in session” — marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/10/10/st_louis_high_school/
Marketplace’s Tess Vigeland wraps up her “Road to Ruin?” trip in St. Louis, where she sits in with a group of high school students as they learn about the economic crisis.

Students may also find it interesting to look at a particular controversy that developed in the context of efforts to mobilize voters in the coming elections:
“Private Sector Loans, Not Fannie or Freddie, Triggered Crisis” — http://www.truthout.org/101408K
David Goldstein and Kevin G. Hall, McClatchy Newspapers: “As the economy worsens and Election Day approaches, a conservative campaign that blames the global financial crisis on a government push to make housing more affordable to lower-class Americans has taken off on talk radio and e-mail. Commentators say that’s what triggered the stock market meltdown and the freeze on credit. They’ve specifically targeted the m*rtg*ge finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which the federal government seized on Sept. 6, contending that lending to poor and minority Americans caused Fannie’s and Freddie’s financial problems. Federal housing data reveal that the charges aren’t true, and that the private sector, not the government or government-backed companies, was behind the soaring subprime lending at the core of the crisis.”

Finally, there are a number of programs on PRI’s “The Story” series that offer different windows on the run-up to and fall-out from the crisis. Students might find these personal stories both interest-grabbing and stimulating of curiosity and insight. Start at the first page of the Archive — thestory.org/archive/ — and be mindful that there are several successive pages with narratives and interviews that relate to the current situation.

My Second Book On Student Motivation!

My Second Book On Teaching ELLs

My book, "The ESL/ELL Teacher's Survival Guide: Ready-to-Use Strategies, Tools, and Activities for Teaching English Language Learners of All Levels," (co-authored by Katie Hull Sypnieski) was published in the Summer of 2012